It is not too late because Classic Era servers are not going anywhere unlike the seasonal servers with a limited shelf life. Make sure you choose one of the populated clusters: Whitemane for PVP and Mankrik for PVE. If you have friends or want to try elsewhere first the free transfers are still available but only to the two servers mentioned. So if you have a need for a specific character name I’d suggest rolling up on a server connected with one of the destination realms listed above.
Connections shown here: